Queer Beirut

308 Pages·015.367 MB·English

by  Sofian Merabet

Queer Beirut
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Queer Beirut
by sofian Merabet
University of Texas Press   Austin
The University of Texas Press and the author gratefully acknowledge financial
assistance provided for the publication of this book from the President’s Office
at The University of Texas at Austin.
Copyright © 2014 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2014
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713- 7819
http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/rp- form
♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO
Z39.48-1 992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Merabet, Sofian
Queer Beirut / by Sofian Merabet.
  pages  cm
 ISBN 978-0-292-76096-7 (hardback)
1. Gay men—Lebanon—Beirut. 2. Gender identity—Lebanon—Beirut.
3. Homosexuality—Lebanon—Beirut. I. Title.
 HQ76.2.L42B456 2014
 306.76′620956925—dc23
2014013809
doi:10.7560/760967
نيويع
Für meinen Neffen Jules und meine Patentochter Widad.
Mögen sie im Strudel der Identitäten stets zahlreiche
Querverbindungen finden.
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue. Itinerant Journeys xv
Introduction 1
1. Producing Queer Space in Beirut:
Zones of Encounter in Post- Civil- War Lebanon 11
2. Producing Prestige in and around Beirut:
The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and
the Assertion of a Queer Presence 43
3. Walking through the Concrete Jungle:
The Queer Urban Stroller Traveling amid
de Certeau, Benjamin, and Bourdieu 69
4. Queer Performances and the Politics of Place:
The Art of Drag and the Routine of Sectarianism 91
5. The Homosexual Sphere between Spatial Appropriation and
Contestation: Collective Activism and the Many Lives of Young
Gay Men in Beirut 112
6. The Queering of Closed and Open Spaces:
Spatial Practices and the Dialectics of External
and Internal Homophobia 134
viii Queer Beirut
7. The Gay Gaze and the Politics of Memory:
A Stroll on the Corniche and a Walk through Zoqāq al- Blāṭ 156
8. “Seeing Oneself” and the Mirror Stage:
The Ḥammām and the Gay Icon Fairuz 187
9. Phenomenology and the Spatial Assertion of Queerness:
Spatial Alienation, Anthropology, and Urban Studies 210
10. Raising the Rainbow Flag between City and Country:
Dancing, Protesting, and the Mimetics of Everyday Life 227
Conclusion. Struggling for Difference 246
Notes 249
Glossary of Transliterated Arabic Terms 261
Bibliography 265
Index 275
Illustrations
Map of Lebanon xviii
Paradise Beach, July 28, 2013 2
Map of Beirut 10
Maarad Street, July 29, 2010 28
Classic “service” out of service, May 29, 2011 32
“The Life of a Gigolo Is Hard,” July 1, 2011 36
The staircase at the Roman baths, July 3, 2010 48
Snāck al- sakhra, August 2003 50
Commotion on the Corniche, May 29, 2011 78
View from the American University of Beirut “beach”
to ʿAyn al- Mraisseh, July 3, 2013 82
Cinéma Salwa in Tarīq al- Jdīdeh, July 22, 2010 86
View from Ashrafieh westward, August 6, 2010 89
Rue Monot sign, August 5, 2010 99
Photos of Bachir on a building in Ashrafieh, January 19, 2012 103
Battle of the phalluses in ḍownṭown, June 18, 2011 109
Life on the Corniche, June 23, 2011 157
The Phoenicia Hotel with the old Holiday Inn behind it,
June 24, 2011 159
The old manāra, June 22, 2011 160
The new manāra, June 20, 2011 161
The location of the former Hotel Carlton, June 27, 2011 164